The heads of disc drive units accumulate dust and debris and, therefore, require periodic cleaning. One form of cleaning device, for floppy diskette drive units, is a round fibrous cleaning disc which is mounted for rotatable movement within a square shaped jacket. A cleaning solution is applied through openings in the surface of the jacket prior to insertion of the cleaning tool into the receiving area of a floppy diskette drive unit. The computer is activated so that the diskette drive spindle engages and then rotates the cleaning disc across the read/write heads. A disadvantage of this type of cleaning device is that the cleaning disc, because it rotates in the same direction as the floppy data diskette, does little more than remove and then redeposit the contaminants and debris on the leading edge of the read/write heads. The read/write heads, therefore, are not effectively cleaned.
Also disadvantageous is that the same peripheral area of the cleaning disk is re used for each new cleaning operation which results in deposition of the contaminants removed in a previous cleaning back onto the read/write heads. Further, the abrasive friction from the spinning disc can cause wear on the surface of the heads. Such cleaning devices also require that the computer be turned on and the disc drive activated; some computer literacy is thus required. And finally, the flexible jacket portion of such cleaning devices has a tendency to buckle and jam when it is inserted into or released from the receiving area of the floppy diskette drive.
Non-spinnable cleaning devices also are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,617 to Fritsch teaches a laterally translatable cleaning device while U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,686 to Freeman et al. teach a cleaning device with a rotatable wiper assembly. These cleaning devices may fail or require maintenance due to their several internal moving parts.
U S Pat. No. 4,868,700 to Fritsch shows a non-rotatable plate member with a surface mounted cleaning fabric. Execution of a previously stored computer program causes the read/write heads to move backwards and forwards over the stationary cleaning surface. Disadvantages of this device are that it requires that the computer be turned on, a compatible software program be pre stored in the computer's memory, and the user have some computer literacy.
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved device for cleaning heads of disc drive units, such as a read/write head of a floppy diskette drive unit, or any other magnetic data recording or playback device, including audio and video devices.